


On the Screws.

by Haewkes



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baseball, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:27:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haewkes/pseuds/Haewkes
Summary: Danny Dong entered college with a full ride scholarship. Ever since the start of high school, baseball had been the center of his world. But college broadens his horizon, and he finds out that not everything can be won by just swinging a bat real good.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. September

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sterrenschijnsel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sterrenschijnsel/gifts).



> Hey everyone who’s reading this!  
> Welcome to this self-indulgent Christmas present to my best friend. This thing might be edited and added to at my leisure but if you find this, read this and enjoy this... hey, thanks.

**_September 2nd 2019_ **

**_Danny._ **

The low heat of the afternoon September sun had Danny’s forehead covered in sweat. Granted, he was wearing three layers, one of which was a heavy leather varsity jacket, and Californian summers had never been known to be merciful.  
Danny simply didn’t have any more hands left. A heavy sports bag slung over his right shoulder, a ratty, overstuffed eastpack with his bat sticking out over his left, a cardboard box propped uncomfortably under his arm, and a suitcase trolley with a single ‘working’ wheel sort of trailing after him. 

Mom had dropped him pretty close to the building, then went to look for a parking spot on the overcrowded lots of Stanford’s campus. She and Jacky were up for a long walk, Danny reckoned.   
He shouldered his way through the sea of freshmen and parents following the little signs through the main entrance and diner hall towards the Junipero building, repositioning his entire cargo for the fourth time to check the smudged writing on his hand. 

**_2th fl 14 Jnp._ **

Somehow it grounded him.  
It wasn’t like he had forgotten, with Cirrus messaging him about it about every other day, and the bright, nervous reminder of the life changing event of finally starting college haunting him, _constantly_ , it was pretty hard to forget. But it helped, knowing for sure there was a place within this enormous campus, between these hundreds of people that was waiting for _him_. 

Danny stopped in front of the dorm for a single moment, releasing the disappointment of a suitcase to wipe his fringe from his sweaty face.  
A pretty dark skinned girl in a yellow sundress skipped down the stairs, smiling at him giddily. She seemed about as nervously excited as Danny was, and he smiled back. 

“Hi!” She peeked around him, eyes immediately on the bat in his backpack.   
“Oh!” She yelped, “Batter!” 

Danny laughed, wiped the sweat hand on his jeans and kind of held it out to her.  
Cirrus would’ve stared him in the face indignantly, but the girl didn’t seem bothered by his gross hand at all, she took it, shaking it with a force that betrayed her of some sportsmanship herself.

“Danny’s my name, actually.” He said, grinning. “But I’m a batter, yeah.”

“Mica!” She said, “I’m tennis actually, but my brother’s a senior batter for Cardinal! You’re in Junipero too? We should totally practice together if you’re doing try-outs! I can pitch real good.”

Danny laughed, still packed full with all his belongings and not even having set foot in the threshold, he was already making friends. The nervousness slid off his shoulders like a blanket, and he hitched up his sports bag subconsciously. “I mean, you’re right. That was a great pitch right there.” He teased, “I’d love that, we can do a bat versus racket fight!”

Mica beamed in response, then seemed to remember something and her back shot up straight. “Oh fu-dgenuggets, I gotta run. And you should totally go meet your dorm room. See you later Bat-Danny!”

Danny laughed after her, raising his hand in goodbye. “See ya Pitch-perfect!”

Recharged with confidence, Danny lifted his suitcase up the stairs and took another flight of stairs up to the second floor. There were people, bags and boxes about everywhere, and Danny strutted the hallway, as well as he possibly could without losing his balance.  
Halfway through, he bumped into a tall man with glasses with his cardboard box, and about half of its contents fell out. “Fu-dgenuggets.” Danny cursed before he could catch himself.  
He felt his ears burn with embarrassment. Mostly because of the stupid curse word that had subconsciously stuck to him.  
  
“Sorry about that, sir.” He muttered, reaching for the contents on the ground. The man came back up with him at the same time, holding a shiny trophy that Danny had been allowed to take home from high school. It was one of his proudest possessions.

 _“State Championships 2017”_ The man read from the placket, brows furrowed like he didn’t understand. Danny lingered awkwardly, sort of waiting for him to hand it back.  
Instead, the man turned the trophy around in his hand, and seemed to make a connection. “Oh! That’s a cricket batter! You’re a cricket player!” 

Danny stared incredulously for a bit, and then laughed. “No sir, that’s baseball, actually.”

The man’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” He turned around inside the dorm room he had been standing in, calling out. “My son likes baseball! Frederick! You like baseball, right?”   
Danny curiously peered around the man’s tall frame, and saw a figure at the other side of the room slowly rise from a bent over position. Frederick, the aforementioned son, let out an embarrassed groan.  
  
“Dad, you were gonna help me out, you can be the awkward professor later.”  
He came around his father’s shoulder to pull at him, and then blinked at Danny. 

Danny blinked back, eyes widening.

Soft dark curls framed the boy’s face, his bright eyes as wide as Danny’s as his cheeks slowly burned red. Ridiculously, Cirrus’ voice echoed inside his head; _“Daniël Disimpassioned Dong, you couldn’t recognise a work of art if it hit you right in the face.”_ Danny had laughed back then, thinking it true. But Cirrus had been wrong all along.

“Sorry about him.” Frederick muttered, still pulling at his smiling professor dad, taking the trophy from him to hand back to Danny.   
Danny scraped his throat, smiling like a goddamn creep as he shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”  
  
Frederick’s back was rigid, breathing deeply out of his nose to compose his blushing cheeks. Danny couldn’t remember ever seeing anything cuter, but maybe his brain had just short-circuited.   
“For the record, I do like baseball.” Frederick said, his eyes anywhere but on Danny’s face. Danny himself had forgotten if there were any other places to look than Frederick’s freckles, cheekbones and Danny Zuko-like sideburns.  
  
“So do I.” Danny said without thinking, like an idiot.  
Fredericks eyes shot back to him then, he laughed, a little snorting sound. And Danny couldn’t find it in himself to be ashamed of pulling such a wonderful sound from the other boy.  
  
“Bye.” Said Frederick shyly, pushing the door closed. 

Danny grinned, stuffing the trophy back into the cardboard box. “See you around, I hope.”  
And Frederick nodded, running his hand through his perfectly styled curls, messing them up, or maybe improving them. Danny wasn’t entirely sure.

“Yeah.” he said, and the door clicked shut.

“Wow.” Danny muttered, hauling his suitcase back up, and continuing his stride through the hallway. “Wowowow.”  
College was awesome.

* * *

Danny finally reached dorm number 17, at the very end of the hallway, next to what Danny assumed must be the bathroom. He wasn’t surprised, not really. The Noël family was crazy influential in a weird secretive way. Well it wasn’t that secretive, really. It was just money. If one of the Noëls wanted something, they made it happen. Cirrus wanted a room next to the bathroom? Like it was hard?

Cirrus and Danny were about the closest thing as polar opposites could go. Danny was loud, sporty, rebellious, and kind of obtuse. He loved to party and his favoured amount of human attention was constantly. Cirrus was withdrawn, asthmatic, dainty, and spoiled. His spotify daily mixes suggested exclusively music without lyrics, and his perfect Friday night was spent drinking buttermilk or honey milk chai while swatching his watercolour paints. 

They had, however, been best friends since they were 8. Danny had moved with his mother from Toronto when his parents divorced, and Cirrus’ family had come over from New Zealand that same summer. They were both the odd ones out. Cirrus didn’t say much, the other kids making fun of his accent constantly on top of being an introverted shy asperger kid that had been homeschooled until then. Danny was in a very bad mental place, was threatened to be sent to a boarding school by his mom about twice a week, had untreated adhd and was blowing up in everyone’s face constantly. 

They had ended up at the same table during lunch in the overcrowded cafeteria. At opposite sides of the table at first. After a week, Danny noticed that Cirrus never ate any of the potato dishes, while Danny was often still hungry after lunch. Meanwhile, Cirrus always squeezed every last drop out of his milk carton, while Danny didn’t do well with lactose.  
They found a mutually beneficial relationship.   
When you’re eight years old, the base you build a friendship on can be fickle like that. I like your potatoes, you like my milk. Let’s be friends.   
It can be destroyed just as easy. 

When they were nine, after a particularly big fight with his mom Danny was so jealous of Cirrus that he broke his favourite pen between his shaking fists. That was the kind of stuff that could kill a 3rd grader’s friendship in a heartbeat. It should have been, following basic middle school logic.  
Danny wasn’t sure why he had done it. Perhaps he had been tired of feeling vulnerable. Perhaps it had been yet another cry for attention.  
And Cirrus hadn’t even spilled a single tear, even though Cirrus had cried over _every_ single thing back then.   
He had looked Danny straight in the eye, worry clear on his face, and asked him if breaking it had helped him feel better. Danny had realised it didn’t at all. In fact, it had made him feel worse.  
Then Danny had been the one crying. Nothing could break them after that. 

They both made more friends in high school, Danny finding an outlet for his whirlwind of emotions and need of attention by doing competitive baseball, and finally taking ritalin. And Cirrus’ artistic talent finally got recognised as his confidence crawled his way back up as he got older and realised that his mother wasn't the only person that liked him. 

Different as night and day. And yet, they were still best buddies ten years later. If someone asked them there was no hesitation in their answer, only pride and fondness. Their friendship never wavered.

Danny knew exactly how to walk someone through an asthma attack. What colour to get when someone texted him to get a tube of Winsor & Newton Alizarine (Just say fucking _red,_ Cir)  
In return Cirrus picked his drunk ass up with his gay as fuck blue minicooper when parties got out of hand. When Danny ran his converses down to holes again, Cirrus took him out shopping. They took care of each other like brothers. But better.

“There's plenty of light, father. Yeah, no mold, right ma?” Danny heard an affirmative yet absent noise from Evelyn Noël from the other side of the door. 

“ _Yes,_ father. I am sure about this. I’ve been packing for weeks you think I-“ Cirrus’s raised voice dropped. “-I’m sorry. Yes. No that’s fine, father. I’m sorry! I know!”  
Cirrus’ voice was a little shaky, and Daniël frowned deeply.  
Sometimes he wondered what was worse, the unapproachable over-controlling Wyatt Noël, or ‘a dad’ in Canada who only called once a year on your birthday (if he remembered).  
Done eavesdropping on a conversation he didn’t want to hear anyway, Danny repositioned the box in his arms yet again and rapped loudly on the door.

Evelyn opened up, looking Danny up and down quickly. Danny always had the feeling that she saw him sort of like a stray dog. Partly disgusted, partly enamoured, mostly pitying.  
Danny tried his best to like her anyway. It really wasn’t _that_ hard.

“Daniël!” She said pleasantly, her arms widening. Danny mimicked her, calling her name back and making and awkward attempt at an embrace.  
Cirrus put his phone down on the unmade bed he had been sitting on and picked the box from his hands before giving him a hug himself. 

“Hey there Christmas Circus, you settling?”

Cirrus stepped back and knocked down his sunglasses from his curls with a nod from his head, then posed with his arms crossed. Danny was so proud of him.

“What’s up Tiny Dan-cer, welcome to our crib.” 

“ _Cirrus.”_ Evelyn scolded lightly, but Danny was loving it, doubling over and clapping his hands.  
“I’m so excited man! This place is the shi- best!”

“I see you strapped every single one of your belongings to your body?” Cirrus smiled, pushing the sunglasses back onto his head.

“You know I always do.” Danny flexed, shoulders raised and palms upward, most of his bags slid from his shoulders with the move. “Nah, but it’s most of it, mom and Jacky got my laptop and my speakers, didn’t want to break them.” 

“Heavens forbid you can’t blast your god awful music.” Cirrus said, nodding.

“I'm glad you agree.” Danny nodded back, trailing off to look around the room.   
“So what’s the view? We’re gonna see some sunbathing or wha- oh that’s… bikes.” 

“You don’t think bikes are sexy?” Cirrus said, voice slightly muffled by the nails in his mouth. There was a stack of paintings laid out on the bed, because Cirrus wasn’t going to move out without having his walls full of ‘inspirational pieces’.

Danny brought a single poster, one from the Jonas brothers from when they had gone to their concert this august. The three of them were wearing different flashy bowling shirts and pilot glasses with the word ‘Cool’ written above their heads. Cirrus had bought it for him for his birthday on top of the concert tickets because Danny wouldn’t stop screaming how much it was his aesthetic, and also because they both agreed Nick Jonas was pretty hot.

Danny started with the poster, chitchatting with Cirrus and Evelyn about the campus and his major. By the time his mother and sister arrived, most of Danny’s belongings had a place within the room. Cirrus was still hanging paintings.

“Good lighting.” Danny’s mom remarked to Evelyn, who nodded back at her. The two women usually avoided each other like the black plague.  
Never ever having anything good to say about each other. Evelyn was, according to Rebecca, a fat, gold digging failure of a trophy wife.  
And Rebecca, for that matter, was a mannerless harlot that had to be on some kind of drugs to be that skinny.  
Right now they were two civil mothers, albeit reluctantly. 

“It’s truly a beautiful building. Danny can count himself lucky for getting that scholarship, hm?” The energy in the room kind of changed with that remark.  
Danny squeezed the shirt he had been folding. Even Jacky looked up from the window, looking a little affronted. Cirrus was beet red. “Ma, he worked hard for that.” 

“Your father works hard to have you here too.” 

Cirrus dropped the hammer, it bounced on the bed and fell between the bedframe and the wall.  
His mouth slightly open and he looked about as embarrassed as a boy could look. “Ma that’s not the _point_.” He hissed.

“They don’t all have hardworking daddies to put them here.” Danny’s mother said, coldly. 

Danny smacked the shirt on the ground and turned around with his fists clenched.  
“What the _fuck,_ mom.” He ran a hand through his hair in his frustration. He really didn't need her to make this worse. 

“You’re going to let yourself be walked over like that?” His mother hissed back, hands on her hips. 

Danny closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. He didn’t take anger management classes to be riled up like this.   
Jacky moved away from the window and walked over to place her hands on Danny’s shoulders, squeezing softly. 

“Danny knows how he got here. Cirrus knows how he got here. In both cases there’s luck and hard work involved. And they allow each other to have that. They’re best friends. You guys don’t understand because you don’t let any of your friends having anything.” 

Both women had a sour expression on their face, but the fight in them was smacked back in place because there was nothing more to discuss.

“Come on mom, we’re leaving, Danny can handle it from here, he doesn’t need this shit.”   
Jacky kissed him on the cheek and then moved over to give Cirrus a hug as well.  
Danny held his mother, it was short, stiff and awkward. 

“Facetime.” Jacky said, pointing sternly at Danny, then dragged her mother out of the room. 

Evelyn was a little shaken, muttered a soft apology, folded another one of Cirrus sweaters and then announced to the boys that perhaps it was better if she left as well.  
Cirrus kissed her goodbye, a bit tearfully, and promised to call. Danny muttered a “Bye.” Then she was gone too.

“Jacky is my favourite person. If I wasn’t gay I’d be in love with her.” Cirrus announced, letting himself fall back onto his unmade twin sleeper.

“Hurtful. I feel replaced. Kinda gross too, that’s my little sister.” Danny slid down, resting his head against his dresser.

“I wish they would get along better, Jacky is right, they could both use a friend who’s just like… happy for them or something.”   
Cirrus sighed, rolled over and snuck his thin arm in the open space between the bed and the wall to look for his hammer.

“I can’t wait to not see them until Christmas.” Danny grumped. “I can’t wait to not be nagged or argued with or be looked at like I’m a brainless maggot every single fucking day.” 

Cirrus sat back up, hammer in hand, raising his brows at Danny. “What? None of that? Then what am I supposed to do for fun?”

Danny laughed and threw his shirt Cirrus’s way.

* * *

**_September 2nd_ **

**_Freddy_ **

Stressing the absolute fuck out was kind of Frederick Greenwood’s constant state of mind. His trademark, if you would. If there wasn’t anything to worry about, so help him god, Freddy would find something.

Moving out was what some (Mom, mostly) would call unnecessary fuel on the fire, especially since his dad drove out school pretty much every morning and there was no real reason to really be living with expenses like this. But holy _shit_ , Frederick wanted to. He wanted it to work, take responsibility, stand his own ground for once. His heart hadn’t calmed down ever since the car had driven up the campus grounds, and Frederick could still feel it fluttering around in his chest as he opened his suitcase. 

“Calmed down a little?” His father asked, as if he could smell the gears in Freddy’s head turning in his effort to master his nerves.

“Not really, no.” Freddy answered honestly, rubbing his palms over his face in slow circles. “But I feel like it’s getting better. Maybe after Ethan gets back and mom and you are gone, that might make it feel a little bit more real.” 

Ethan’s stuff was all dumped on a gigantic pile on his twin sleeper. He took his and Freddy’s mom for a walk around the campus first. Frederick knew it was an excuse made by the three of them to allow him a moment to get his shit together. Andrew, his dad, was helping him unpack. _“I’m already a local around here.”_ he had said. But Freddy knew that was just an excuse as well.

His dad nodded, running his fingers over the books he had just carefully arranged on the plank above the dresser. “You’re going to be fine, Fred. You’re a lot more mature than I was at your age. You take better care of yourself too.”

Frederick stared at his hands, holding on to a soft sweatshirt. He realised he was shaking, his shoulders shocking slightly. Then finally, he let out a broken sob.  
“ _Freddy”_ his father said, his voice sad. He walked over to him, wrapping his son’s skinny body in his arms.

“What if I’m not good enough, dad?” Frederick muttered against his shoulder, clinging onto him like a goddamn lifeline. “What if I mess up, or can’t keep up, or get stuff wrong-“  
Andrew was rubbing circles on his back, making a soft shushing sound. “Nonsense,” he said, scoffing, “my son? The brilliant Frederick Fredericus Greenwood? Not good enough for college? Who do you think you are?”

Frederick laughed through his sobs, and held on just a little longer before letting go. “I’m scared. There’s no safety net in this place. I have to do everything myself, or it won’t happen.”  
His father shook his head, righted his glasses and gave Frederick’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’ll always have a safety net, son. You might know it by the name of Dad.” 

Frederick smiled, wiping his tears from his eyes, feeling much like a stupid overgrown baby. “You’re not doing all this alone, you know that right?” His father continued. 

“Your old dad’s right here. Ethan is here. Your mother is half an hour away. There’s teachers, counselors, new friends, ” he raised his eyebrows suggestively,   
“All here to help you out. You’re always so set on doing things by yourself. You always have. But part of college is letting that go. Broadening your horizons and stepping away from your comfort zone. Meeting people and working together to achieve your goals. That’s why I wanted you to go dorming as well. I know this is going to be good for you.” 

“I know…” Freddy sighed miserably, picking at his fingernail. “I want it too.” He smiled, breathing out deeply. “I’m going to miss you guys, still.” He muttered, feeling the tears well up again.  
Andrew reached out and ruffled his curls. “I know, Freddy. And we’ll miss you too.”

He clapped his hands, grabbing Fredericks shoulders and shaking slightly. Evidently Andrew’s patience with his sulking had ran out, and he wanted to lift the mood as quickly as he could in the most dad-like way possible. “Why don’t I go get the two of us some coffee, yeah? I’ll be right back.”

Frederick nodded, returning back to his suitcase to resume his business there. His father left the door open as he left, and Frederick could hear the noise of the other freshmen that filled the building. He turned towards the door, just watching for a moment. He listened to the other students laugh and cheer and run around talking excitedly. Ethan was probably doing the same around the campus right now. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last time, Frederick wondered why he couldn’t be just like that. 

It took about ten minutes for Andrew to return, and Frederick had sat down at his desk, still torn if he should arrange it like his desk back home, for the sake of comfort, or do it in a completely different way for the sake of a clean slate. He knew if he was to ask his dad, Andrew would just laugh at him.  
  
“Here’s your cup of joe.” He said, setting both cups on Frederick’s desk like he wasn’t in the middle of an important architectural decision. “The cafetaria downstairs seems like a great place. Healthy, lots of vegetarian choices. For Ethan, you know.”  
  
Frederick hummed, leaning down to gather another handful of dictionaries. Andrew walked back to the door, leaning in the doorway as he looked out over the hallway. “How many of these kids do you think are taking Biology 101 this year? Most people your age like biology, rig-”

There was a sound of impact at the door and his dad was suddenly quiet.  
  
Frederick frowned but kept his head low, stacking his mechanical pencils that had somehow gotten loose in one of the moving boxes. 

“-’re a cricket player!” he heard his dad say suddenly, and Frederick closed his eyes and sighed, long suffering. Of course his dad had to make small talk with his neighbours.  
He heard the other person laugh, a little affronted yet kind-seeming sound. “No sir, that’s baseball actually.”

Frederick could’ve earned money on betting what his father would say next at that.  
“My son likes baseball! Frederick! You like baseball, right?” 

Frederick groaned in response, and dropped the small stack of mechanical pencils on his desk before standing up. “Dad, you were gonna help me out, you can be the awkward professor later.”   
He walked over to the door to just physically drag his Dad back inside, but as he looked over Andrew’s shoulders, he locked eyes with the boy he had been talking to.  
  
He had eyes so dark that they seemed to be black, plush lips and the smoothest skin had ever seen on a boy their age.   
Without breaking eye contact, Frederick took the boy’s trophy back from his father, handing it back to him and pushing his father back into the room.  
“Sorry about that.” He said, sounding out of breath, even to himself. 

The other boy was about 6 inches smaller than him. Honestly, most people were, but this boy still looked muscular enough to be able to throw Frederick over his shoulder. He didn’t know why he thought of that, the guy obviously wasn’t going to do _that_. The idea, however, seemed hot, and that made Freddy panic just a little bit. He didn’t usually go around thinking that people were hot, he was more collected like that. Somehow, his brain seemed to have forgotten that very specific characteristic detail of his, and was now screaming inside his head; _HOT. HOT._ Like Freddy wasn’t super fucking aware of that.  
  
A wide grin spread over the boy’s face, and he was shaking his head. Frederick screamed back to his brain to regain his goddamn composure and stop making a fool of himself.  
“Don’t worry about it.”   
Yet he still looked at him like he was expecting something. And maybe that was right, because Freddy certainly was expecting something from himself. He just wasn’t sure what, but there had to be something. He had to look away, unable to think otherwise. 

“For the record,” he heard himself say, “I do like baseball.” That had been a cool remark, he decided. His brain’s inner jury seemed to agree, nodding along thoughtfully like it hadn’t been screaming _HOT_ less than a minute ago.

There was a moment of quiet and Freddy peeked at him, seeing how he was still looking. What was he looking for? Freddy doubted he was going to find it. He couldn’t even find it himself.

“So do I.” The boy said, his eyes were so sincere, like he could feel Freddy’s discomfort and wanted it away, even if it meant ridiculing himself in the progress.   
It probably wasn’t that fucking deep, but Freddy laughed. Well, he snorted. And as much as the sound that had escaped him had embarrassed him, the other boy looked _delighted._   
And Freddy felt fucking overwhelmed by it. In half a panic, and decidedly having the situation sort of- handled… Frederick somehow decided it was a great time to shut the door on him. So he did. 

“Bye.” He said, and the boy still looked at him, his dark eyes never leaving his face as he smiled the sweetest smile.  
“See you around, I hope?” He said, and Frederick ran his hand through his hair.  
That was flirting. That was textbook flirting and that was unfair, Frederick wasn’t ready for that. He hadn’t done the reading yet. 

“Yeah.” He managed softly, and he shut the fucking door in his face. 

Andrew sat at Freddy’s desk, reading through Stanford’s brochure like he hadn’t been working there for over 12 years. There was a knowing smile on his face as Frederick walked back to him and pulled the dad-filled wheeled chair away to reach his desk. Neither of them commented on what had just taken place, and it hung unspoken in the air.  
There was nothing to discuss, Frederick wasn’t out, not even to Ethan, officially.  
He didn’t like thinking about it. Perhaps that was internalised homophobia, but it felt more like performance pressure to him. 

Every academic knew that there was a process and result needed to discuss anything. And Freddy really hadn’t had given himself the chance to do any testing at all. Mostly because he was pretty sure he was going to be shit at it. Though it wasn’t very likely to be disproven, all he had was a hypothesis: _Frederick Greenwood is pretty fucking gay._

* * *

Ethan and their mothers came in like a whirlwind half an hour afterwards **_._ **Ethan put on a disney playlist on his laptop and Frederick found himself humming along as they set up the rest of the room.   
It was late in the afternoon before they knew it. Andrew sat with Ethan on a bed scrolling through his phone to look at vegan-friendly diners in the neighbourhood to get dinner.   
Frederick’s heart had finally decided to settle the fuck down, and he was now filling in next week’s schedule in his journal as his mother read the subjects out to him. 

“-and that’s by professor Lundraw. You know Fred, I’m glad you’re taking philosophy. You’re just like your father, you know; always in your head. Though, unlike him…” she cast a look towards her husband, smiling fondly as he was lost in a conversation about a salad he ate on a Greek island once, a story Frederick had heard about a hundred times. “You don’t let it out like he does.”

Frederick and his mother both knew that if it came down to it, Frederick could talk for hours on end. He wasn’t exactly shy, but he was hardly the confident speaker his dad was. Freddy loved talking, as long as he knew what he was talking about. Groups of strangers were his kryptonite. If the situation wasn’t completely in his control, Frederick kept his jaw locked and just didn’t say a goddamn thing. It wasn’t a very cool party trick.

”I hope it’ll make you understand people a little better. Get your confidence up somehow. You know, when we met, your dad was just as shy as you are now.” She poked Frederick’s head in a pesterish way and stood up to turn towards the rest of the company. Frederick doubted first year’s philosophy would do much for his anxiety, but Xanax did, and he had been sceptical about that at first too. 

“So, have we figured out where we’re going to eat yet? Or do you need me to pick?” Vivian Greenwood was always one to cut to the chase. 

Freddy often wished he was a little more like his mother.


	2. October

**September 7th**

**Danny**

Danny had had bio in highschool. He objectively sucked at it. He had passed his finals by what his teachers had called “making up for the lack of skill by his enthusiasm for the subject.” Which honestly was the story of his life.

The thing was, Danny loved the idea of biology. He wanted to know how things worked, most of all. Human bodies? Sexy. Absolutely amazing. Plants? Funky little bastards, 10/10. Animal behavior? Hilarious, relatable, cute.  
Cell biology, however? Respiratory systems? Digestive tracts? Awful, depressing, confusing and probably existing solely to make Danny drop out of college in the first month of being there.

The other thing was, Danny loved a challenge. And maybe that was why he had his hopes set on perhaps getting on by better this time. Stanford’s professors were top notch, Danny was packed with ambition and motivation and most importantly- he needed this damn class to graduate.

Ever since he started high school, Danny had built himself a bit of a reputation as a bad boy. A good bad boy, if you would. He would get into fights and was mouthy, handed in stuff too late and smoked during the breaks. But he was also mostly respectful to his peers and superiors, hyped younger kids into playing baseball, and really tried to do his homework most of the time.

Still, it felt really, really weird to walk into the lecture hall and sit in the front row by himself. But Danny had decided; he was going to be involved in this goddamn class. He was going to ask and answer questions and make notes and all that jazz. He was ready and he was buzzing in his seat with a mixture of nerves and excitement. He had his book, notepad and a pen. He had even done the reading in advance, even though he had understood very little of it.

As the rest of the students started filling up the room, Danny relaxed back in his seat. There weren’t really any other people he recognized, but there was something familiar about Professor Greenwood. The professor stood bent over his computer with his head down. He was tall and lanky, and looked like he was somewhere between his forties and fifties. Curly, thinning dark hair and glasses far on his nose. Danny checked his phone, and as his clock jumped from 8:29 to 8:30, Professor Greenwood seemed to jump too.

He clapped his hands, silencing the room as he looked around, a wide smile on his face. And suddenly Danny remembered. It was the dad he had met the first day in the dorms. The dad of the real cute nerdy kid that had blushed like it’d earn him money and had the face of a young prince on the cover of one of Cirrus’ gay romance novels. Frederick. That’s was his name. Frederick Greenwood then. God, his name was like that of a young prince as well.

“My dearest freshmen!” Doctor Greenwood spoke over his microphone, blasting Danny out of his daydream. “Welcome to introductory biology. My name is Andrew Greenwood,” He wrote the name down in a curly cursive on the white board. “but you can call me Professor or Doctor Greenwood because it makes me feel important.” Laughter scattered through the lecture hall, and Danny grinned. He liked this man.

Professor Greenwood let everyone make a little nametag so he could call on them and learn their names. He introduced the subject, covered most of the syllabus’ expectations and what material would end up on the finals. Danny was violently penning down everything the man said. He didn’t see at first as the door of the lecture hall opened until he noticed that everyone around him in the room fell silent.

A boy with a shock of bleached hair and a gigantic green hoodie walked in, looking very guilty. He had the same book as Danny clenched in front of his chest and a pen behind his ear, his cheeks flushed as if he had ran over here. “I’m so sorry Andrew,” The kid said, “I got lost.” And Professor Greenwood laughed, gesturing at the room in front of him with a wave of his hand. “Sit down quickly, Ethan, before I say something interesting.” 

The kid chuckled, sort of relieved and ran over to sit in the front, sitting down in the empty chair next to Danny. “Hey.” He whispered. And Danny was too curious not to react.

“Hey yourself dude.” He said, grinning, “You know the prof on a first name basis?”

The boy nodded quickly, peeking over at Danny’s book to match the page. Not that it mattered, as they hadn’t even really started yet. “Yeah, since I was like five,” he whispered back again, “He’s my best friend’s dad.”

“Oh dang.” Danny said, filing that for later, and they were quiet for a moment. He peeked at the kid’s face, watching how he chewed at the end of his pencil. Somehow he seemed familiar too, Danny felt like he had seen him around before, though he hadn’t been in the dorms that often the past few days. “You’re in Junipero, right?”

Ethan was nodding. “Yeah, second floor.” He then gave Danny a long onceover, furrowing his brows slightly in thought. He used his chewed down pen to scribble down a date professor Greenwood had put on the white board, and then turned back to Danny again. “Hey, are you the baseball guy?”

Danny considered him, a smirk on his face. There were definitely worse things to be called. “I am _a_ baseball guy, yeah. You like baseball?”  
Ethan shook his head, penning down something the professor said that Danny hadn’t been able to catch if he tried.  
“Nah, it’s pretty boring.” He muttered. Then blinked, and turned to Danny with wide blue eyes. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I-“

Danny laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. He decided he liked this guy. “Don’t be, at least you’re honest.”  
The other boy sighed in relief, and then offered Danny his hand. Danny shook it. “Ethan Fowler.” He said, looking a little shy. “I’m Danny.” Danny pointed at the nametag on his table as if to prove his point.

“Gentlemen on the first row,” Professor Greenwood sighed, looking the two of them down. “I’ll assign you some group work later. Right now I get paid to hear myself talk.”  
Danny and Ethan shut up for the rest of the lecture, perhaps both feeling like they had to prove something to professor Andrew Greenwood.

* * *

**October 2nd 2019**

The first month of college had been a lot to handle if Danny was to be honest. The classes were pretty though, and baseball training took up almost all of his remaining free time. Then there were the varsity parties. Danny had set himself a strict two parties a week limit, but he already felt himself be too lenient with his rules. Drinking a few beers with the boys wasn’t really a party, was it? Even if it lasted until deep into the night. When he got a moment for himself, he was usually lounging in bed; watching a movie or watching Cirrus paint.

He hadn’t seen much from Ethan’s best friend and roommate besides passing him in the hallway with an awkward little smile. It kind of felt like he was avoiding him a little, but maybe that was giving himself too much credit. Frederick was never there when Danny came over to their dorm to work on his and Ethan’s biology project. According to Ethan, the other boy spent most of his time in the library to study.  
_“Frederick takes his classes super seriously,”_ Ethan had said. Danny wasn’t sure how the other boy could have so much self discipline. It seemed to him like maybe he might be overdoing it a little. Danny could help giving him a bit of a break, the times he did pass Frederick in the hallway, he looked like he could definitely use one. But maybe Danny wasn’t the right person to judge about those things.

Danny was lying on his bed again as he overthought this, his laptop on his chest as he half heartedly paid attention to a baseball match. He was kind of falling asleep, his single working earphone almost falling out of his ear and the soft sound of Cirrus’ playlist (probably the OST of pride and prejudice, again) soothingly playing in the background. He heard his phone buzzing somewhere, and searched without really looking for it. When he didn’t find it immediately, he sighed and let his head fall back.

“Cir-bear, where’s my phone?”

“Swallowed it.” Cirrus said without missing a beat. “Do you need me to call you?”

“Hmm.” Danny reacted lazily.

“Yes or no? Cirrus said impatiently, scooting his little wheeled stool backwards. “Danjamin?” But Cirrus already had his phone out.

Danny felt something buzz under his ass and he wriggled a bit before finally fishing it out from under him. “Was on top of it.” He muttered. Cirrus kindly rolled his eyes and then rolled himself back to his painting.

Danny had now a shiny missed call from:  
_“Cloudy with a chance of Christmas. (Aka Cirrus Noël esquire)”_ probably the longest name on his phone. A string of snapchats he didn’t really feel like checking.  
A Facebook invite from Mica for a Halloween party at Wilbur hall. That seemed fun! Danny immediately set himself to going. He checked his instagram, liked a few photos and then saw Ethan’s face popping up in a little bubble on the side.

**_ Dairy free Ethanol 7:35 pm said: _ **

_Hey danny  
_ _Lost bio book :(  
_ _can u take pix 4 me  
_ _I need 4 projct  
_ _Pg. 223 to 244 pls_

Danny groaned, rubbing his face. “Fucking hell, Ethan,” he complained. He really wasn’t up for photographing 21 pages right now.

“What’s the poor boy done this time.” Cirrus asked, probably nosy rather than really interested.

“Lost his book again.” Danny muttered, already typing out a reply.

**_  
You 7:36 said:  
_ ** _Andrews gonna kick your ass bro  
_ _You can have mine for 2nite but i want it back tomorrow  
_ _and you owe me, capisce?_

“Again? He does that a lot?” Cirrus asked, turning towards Danny to refill one of his paints.  
“Kid would forget his own head if it wasn’t stuck on his shoulders. Complete scatterbrain.  
Cirrus hummed. “He’s the best friend of your mysterious prince, right?”

**_ Dairy free Ethanol 7:37 said:  
_ ** _Whats a capisce  
_ _OH is that the nuts?  
_ _Do you want nuts in return?  
_ _I think the cafetaria has cashews only tho  
_ _I can get you nuts danny can you get me the book?  
_ _Oh wait thats pistacios.  
_ _Dadjfhdnsdjdj  
_ _Omg i feel stupid_

“You ask that like you don’t know for sure.” Danny muttered poutily. Then laughed under his breath as he read Ethan's frantic replies.

**_ You 7:40 said  
_ ** _Lmao you gonna work on our project with that brain?  
_ _Seems like its ethan bedtime buddy  
_ _I dont need no nuts of yours chaos man_

“I do that to make you feel better.” Cirrus grinned  
“Im just saying if you want to charm a prince, you’re going to need to be a bit less of that…” he pointed at Danny’s slacked out form on the bed, “and a bit more… gallant. I think you should go over and bring the book.”

Danny groaned again, scratching himself through his sweatpants ungracefully just to prove some kind of point. “Alright thank you, my personal diplomatic adviser. I’ll swing by real quick, I guess it’s basically next door anyway.”

“That’s a good boy.” Cirrus praised, nodding solemnly. He skipped a song on his playlist and didn’t really look up anymore as Danny rolled out of bed and across the room to look for the book.

Cirrus was painting a bouquet. Danny didn’t really know the names of the flowers, but he knew a little about painting bouquets. The thing was, Cirrus was fucking amazing at painting bouquets. He was pretty good at painting most things, but the flowers truly were Cirrus pride and joy. They were a comfort to him, something to fall back on. Whenever Cirrus would feel unsure, stressed or uncomfortable he would paint flowers, and he would feel a little better about himself. Cirrus had been painting a lot of flowers since they started college. Danny could kind of understand why.

He found his book under his desk, and he turned to Cirrus. “I like the yellow ones.” He told Cirrus’ hair, leaning his chin on top of his curls and giving it a little kiss. “It’s buttercups.” Cirrus sighed, but he seemed disappointed in himself rather than Danny’s lack of botanical knowledge. “But I guess they're a bit too abstract to see.”

Danny shook his head, shaking Cirrus with him.

“No I’m just dumb. I’ll get you some hot chocolate from the canteen. Keep on rocking that smile, Circus clown of mine?”  
“Save that cute shit for the prince, Danny.” Cirrus pushed at him, but he was smiling a little again. Danny stuck out his tongue at him, walking for the door.

“Danny,” Cirrus piped up timidly before Danny walked out. Danny hummed questioningly. “White chocolate mocha?”

Danny finger gunned at him.

* * *

Danny walked over to dorm number 8. There was a little smiley face drawn onto the top circle of the 8, and there was a weird blue stain near the knob for some reason. It had been there since the beginning, and Danny knew because since that first day, every time he walked past the door in the hallway his head would turn and his brain would focus on it as if it would make someone come out there.

 _“Eight eight eight.”_ His hyperactive brain would bounce _“He lives at eight and I wish to date and don't wanna wait cuz it'll be too late.”_ And honestly it made Danny fucking crazy. He’d stalk down the hallway thinking _“BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS”_ Really hard just to take his mind of it, but it really didn’t work very often.

 _“Eight eight eight-“_ his brain started again kindly, and Danny knocked at the door a little too hard.

Ethan opened up almost immediately. He had a large tee on that said “herbivore” and had a little dinosaur on it. It was pretty cute, but it looked like someone three times the size of Ethan owned it.  
“Oh! You’re a hero Danny,” he sighed, grabbing for the book, “I was about to come to yours but it’s actually good you’re here because I wanted to show you something for the project too!”

Danny looked into the room, Ethan’s side was a complete mess, as always. Like, honestly Danny didn't consider himself an organized person, but Ethan was on a whole other level. There were books everywhere, clothes and stuffed animals (which seemed like a bit of a collection, something Danny referred to as “Ethan’s zoo.”) thrown all around and food and candy wherever you rest your eyes. Frederick’s side kind of looked like nobody lived there.

In the middle of the chaos that was Ethan’s bed stood his laptop, opened on a page that was selling dragon onesies. “Oh yeah, definitely looks like mad interesting research.” Danny said, a smirk on his face. Ethan turned to face his laptop as well, and blushed a bit. “Haha,” he laughed awkwardly, scratching his neck. “No that’s for the Halloween party. I got a little distracted-“ Ethan dove for his laptop and clicked away about a dozen pages before shoving his macbook sporting an academic text Danny really didn’t feel like reading in his face.

“Oh yeah, looks lit.” He made an effort to scroll a little bit, not really taking in anything, and then handed the laptop back. “Hey doofus, I’m pretty sure if you cleaned this pigsty you’d find your textbook.”

Ethan shook his head. “I’m pretty sure Freddy took it. He was grabbing for everything that sort of looked like biology earlier when he went to the library.”   
Danny smiled, Frederick was probably the only person on the campus to bring his own collection of books to a library.

Ethan paged through the book, and Danny sort of raked together some of Ethan’s dirty laundry with his sneakers. “What hormones does a liver produce again…” Ethan muttered under his breath. He crossed his legs on his bed, and Danny sat down next to him, taking the book from him to look up _‘liver’_ in the index.

The door of the dormroom slammed open and both Ethan and Danny’s heads shot up as Frederick came rushing in, visibly upset and his arms full of books.  
“God fucking bitch ass motherfuckers in the library- swear to god what is the fucking point of promoting your shitty ass place to be open to eight if youre going to be sweeping out people before fucking half past seven I’m legit gonna go fucking feral on those cunts next time I-“

He then seemed to realize that it was not just his angelic mess of a best roommate he was flipping his shit to, but the unexpected company of said roommate as well. Frederick’s eyes seemed to bug out of his regal face. That regal face with a potty mouth that could put a sailor to shame. “I- huh- I’m…” Frederick stammered, his face flushing bright red. He managed to cross the entire room and carefully set his books down on his desk, and then turned on his heel. “I’m going to the toilet.” He announced, and fled.

The door slammed shut and Ethan burst out in giggles, letting himself fall back.  
“Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen him that embarrassed.”  
“What was that,” Danny asked, laughing himself. “I’m a little turned on, not gonna lie.” Ethan laughed even harder at that. “You should’ve been there last week when the coffee machine downstairs broke down.”

He sat back up and walked over to Frederick’s desk. “Here’s my bio book! Told you.” He picked the book from the stack and made some of the others scatter over the desk. Danny wasn’t really gonna comment on it. Ethan kept at the desk for a little bit, biting his lip.

“Danny could you do me a favor?”

Danny lounged back, winking. “What kind of favor?” He drawled. Ethan giggled again, shaking his head.

“Could you maybe like- tell Freddy that it’s okay? He’s gonna beat himself up over this for the rest of the week.”

“Yeah,” Danny said, “Sure, I can do that.”

* * *

Danny flung his bio book into his room, and then waited by his door for Frederick to come back. As the other boy finally came out of the bathroom, Danny could see the dark crescents under his eyes and his slumped posture. He looked absolutely exhausted, and Danny wasn’t surprised, if being at the library till eight was a daily thing. Danny kind of felt like sitting him down on a chair and giving him a hot chocolate of his own.

As Frederick looked up and spotted him he cringed a little and bend his head down as if he was ready to take the loss and just ignore Danny all together. It was a pity for him that Daniël Dong wasn’t the kind of person you could just ignore and get away with it.

“Hey, Frederick, right?” He called out. Frederick stopped in his tracks, turned his head around and then let out a sort of resigned sigh.  
Danny walked up to him. “Remember me?”

“The baseball guy.” Frederick muttered, his lip curling up.

Danny dug his hands into the pouch of his hoodie, stretching backwards and rolling his eyes with a grin of his own. “Come on now, I’m sure you know my real name.”  
Frederick looked up at him. Then back down. He still seemed kind of embarrassed. “Daniël.” He said carefully, as if Danny would’ve laughed at him if he got it wrong.

“That’s what my mom calls me when I fuck up.” Danny teased, “Everyone else calls me Danny.” He pulled his right hand from his pouch and offered it to Frederick, because it seemed like something the other boy would appreciate. Frederick smiled and took it, so it seemed like he did. “Call me Freddy then, so we’re even.”

Danny smiled up at him widely. “I like being even.”  
Frederick- Freddy smiled back, those freckled cheeks of his still a pretty pink and Danny couldn’t help but feel a little starstruck. “Hey,” Freddy started, “I’m sorry about just now, that was-” “Pretty damn cute?” Danny interrupted, raising his brows. Freddy blinked, then raised his eyebrows back at him. “Come-on Freddy, I’m from LA, you think I’ve never heard someone curse before? Though I hadn't expected it from you, I won't lie.” “That’s fair…” Freddy muttered. “Still, not a very good impression.”

Danny smiled gently at him tilting his head. “Don’t you worry about that, I’ve got a pretty good impression of you.” He purred. Freddy let out an embarrassed little chuckle, quickly running a hand through his curls.

“Hey,” Danny prompted this time as a silence fell over the two of them again. “Ethan tells me you basically run on coffee, and I’m about to get some for my roommate. Want to join me?” Freddy immediately nodded at the prospect of coffee, and then paled slightly. “Ethan told you that? What else did he tell you?” Danny grinned mysteriously placing his finger in front of his lips. “No sir, let’s talk about that over coffee.”

* * *

It turned out Freddy liked his coffee like Danny liked his men. Long, dark… haired and that was sort of where he ended his joke awkwardly. Freddy still laughed, and followed Danny as he sat down in one of the benches so he figured he could probably still count it as a win.

“I don’t really drink coffee. Doesn’t do well for me.” Danny admitted as he stirred another sugar package through the black liquid he probably would end up throwing out anyway. Freddy looked honestly surprised. “Then why did you order it?”

Danny leaned back in his chair, balancing on two of its legs. “I’m very easily peer pressured.” He admitted. Freddy laughed again, holding his cup with both hands as he sipped from it. He had very long, slender fingers, Danny noticed, like a piano player.

“Hmm, I’ll remember that.” He said. Danny let his chair fall back to the front, putting up a scandalized face. “You’re going to peer pressure me, Alfredo?” Freddy giggled and rolled his eyes. “You seem like the type to do anything for a dare, to be honest. I don’t feel like there will be much pressuring involved.” Danny pointed at him, lips pouted. “You’re right. But I’m still super offended.”

“I dare you to stop being offended, then.” Freddy smirked, quickly hiding his face into the paper cup. “Damn, you found my loophole.” Danny complained, smacking his fist in his palm like a cartoon character. He reached out for his cup of coffee and took a very tiny little sip.  
“Ew.” He muttered. And Freddy laughed at him. “You put in about seven packets of sugar, of course it’s “ _ew”_.” 

Danny shrugged. “I tried making it as appealing as possible for a self destructive college kid with an attention disorder, alright? Me drinking something like this was my moms biggest nightmare when I was a ten-year-old.” He pouted, sticking his wooden stirring stick back into the hole of the travellid. “Turns out I don’t even like it.”

Frederick tilted his head, “Isn’t caffeine supposed to help people with attention disorders? Like, to make them focus.” 

Danny blinked, the fuck did he know. All Danny had ever learned was that caffeine and sugar supposedly made little loud Danny ten times louder and brattier. He never even got to try it out. “Not sure if it mixes well with my drug of choice.” He muttered, deciding to joke his way out of it. “Though, I certainly don’t get focussed from rum and coke.”

“You’re under age!” Frederick said, swatting at him as he giggled, hiding his mouth in his hand. He was trying his best to keep their conversation limited to the two of them, where Danny, as always, tried to involve the entire room.

Danny shrugged exaggeratingly, then pointed at himself with his thumb. “Easily peer-pressured, Alfredo. Keep up.” Freddy rolled his eyes. He didn’t seem very impressed by the prospect of drinking. Probably worried about damaging his brain. Freddy probably actually had some brains to worry about damaging. 

“It's not putting you off right, my drinking?” Danny said, putting up his puppy eyes. “I promise you I’m just trying to be a good little varsity boy. They made me do it. I know I seem super cool, but it's actually all a front. I promise I'll keep the rum away from my coke from now on, if it helps. I'll get super focussed and everything. You can have my coffee? To make up for it?” 

Freddy smiled at him, shaking his head. “You’re a dork.” He said, snickering. “I don’t want your coffee, but you could get me another one later?” He said it with a hesitant mischievousness, and that hint of a mischievous look was so good on him that Danny didn’t even think about not complying. He gave him a quick salute. “Definitely, sir. Anything to stay in you good graces.”

It seemed like that the good graces of Frederick Greenwood could be exploited quite a bit. As they laughed and chatted Danny completely forgot the world around them. But the world, in return, didn't give much of a damn about the two of them either, time had passed a lot quicker than they had realized. Slowly the Starbucks they had settled themselves in had emptied out, and they were the last two customers left. A guy with a gigantic head of curls tucked in a ponytail under a black cap walked up to them. Danny wondered how he made it fit.  
  
"Hey uh... we're closing in ten minutes so I'm kind of going to need you guys to leave." The guy started awkwardly. He looked kind of like he had rather eaten that cap of his than having addressed the two of them, and waved a dishrag and a spray bottle in front of them as if to prove a point.

"Oh fuck. Can I still order a white chocolate mocha?" Danny said, fearing the wrath of this awkward guy a lot less than a pouty, or god forbid- cranky Cirrus Noël.

Frederick looked away from them, scratching his head as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't. "Danny..." He said with a bit of a whine, clearly embarrassed. Danny loved it, it kind of made him feel like they were boyfriends. "If you do it at the counter..." The guy just sounded exhausted, like he had already pegged Danny as that kind of customer. Danny could take that loss.

"Oh and a tall mango black tea lemonade." Danny said, leaning against the counter with his hip, just to be an asshole, and maybe to get a bit more of a rise out of Freddy. "No more coffee for me, tastes like ass. Not that I don't like ass-"

"Good for you." The guy sighed, holding up the cup. "Name?"

* * *

Outside the sky had turned dark and the campus grounds looked like a whole different place. Danny sucked on the straw of his iced tea, and held Cirrus' warm cup in his other hand. It was kind of a weird sensation, that hot and cold.

Frederick fiddled with one of the sugar packets Danny had scattered around their table earlier. Danny thought it was kind of cute that he had taken it with him for some reason. Maybe just for stimming. Freddy looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite find the words. Danny waited as patiently as he could, which wasn’t impressively long.

“Can I ask you something… super fucking blunt?” Frederick finally brought out, those freckled cheeks quickly lighting up again. He blushed so goddamn easily, Danny wondered if he was so responsive all the time, or if he was just very nervous. Danny bit his lip, "I mean, I'm super fucking blunt like, all of the time and you don't really see me asking..." He prompted him.  
  
"True... I guess." Frederick nodded, smiling an unsure little smile.

They were huddled pretty close together as they walked along the dark grounds. Frederick was clearly not used to being outside this late like this. It did feel kind of weird. Danny sort of had the feeling that he was supposed to be a lot less sober, or needed at least 5 more loud friends walking along with the two of them. He also really felt like having a cigarette, but he was carrying two beverages and he really wasn't going to ask Freddy to hold one so he could waft his smoke in his pretty face.

"Very true." Danny nodded encouragingly. Frederick opened and closed his mouth, cheeks heating up slightly, and then snapped the sugar packet in two. He looked at his hands, kind of surprised, then sort of sad, and then looked at Danny with his brows furrowed, like it was his fault. It was a hell of a face journey.

"Is this- did you want to.... become friends or something? I mean- you could've asked Ethan to get coffee but you didn't so- yeah." Frederick stammered. He was still looking at him, but now he looked sort of angry at himself rather than Danny.

Danny chortled. "I thought you were gonna be fucking blunt."

"That was fucking blunt!" Frederick yelped, throwing his arms up. "I mean- for me-"

Danny laughed a little more and then took a long sip from his iced tea, making eyes at Freddy. "Try blunter." He said, "Tell me what's on your mind, baby."

Freddy's face bloomed red at that and Danny knew he had definitely hit that one on the screws. It seemed to have the desired effect too as Freddy balled his fists and stopped in his tracks. "Are you gay?" He asked. There wasn't really a tone to the question, but it was a question that could have been asked for many reasons.

Danny's straw made a slurping sound against the bottom of his cup against the silence of the night. He looked at him from under his lashes, trying to read Frederick's face in the light of the street lanterns. He could've read him wrong. It didn't happen often, but perhaps Freddy wasn't gay at all, or just really super closeted. God wouldn't that be a pity. Jesus- that would really, _really_ suck.

"I'm uh-" Danny said, swallowing the thought away. "I'm Bi."  
  
"Oh." Frederick said, nodding thoughtfully. He bit his lip, and his eyes left Danny's face. "How did you uh... How did you know?"

Danny smiled, gently. "I think girls are nice," He started, "...But this" and he gestured at Freddy with his head as his hands were occupied. "This is really nice too."

"I think I'm gay." Frederick blurted at him. "I'm not sure but- I'm pretty sure."

"You can be bi too-" Danny offered, but Freddy immediately shook his head at that. "No, I don't like girls. I don't like many people at all- like that. I try not to. Fuck."

The hand was back into his hair again, and Danny watched him carefully, his head tilted at him with a smile. He felt like he could watch him all night like this, like back in the coffee shop; wanting to get every word out like it would be written down and published, failing at it so wonderfully. Danny just blurted out everything that came up in his mind. Then Freddy wanted to match up to that, and the sentences came out like his brain didn't want them to come out yet. ' _I'm not a great conversationalist.'_ Freddy had apologized halfway past the evening. _'Bullshit,'_ Danny had thought. _'You could talk to me about anything and it would be the most interesting thing to me.'_

 _"_ I think I like _this_ too." Freddy sighed, gesturing halfheartedly at Danny, who simply beamed back at him and lifted the two cups in the air in victory. Freddy giggled. "I don't really get what the hell you see in me though. I'm a mess."  
  
"A hot mess." Danny smirked, Freddy kicked at him. "Stop, I'm trying to focus." Danny smiled. "I hear coffee helps with that-" he said like a smartass, and Freddy kicked at his feet again.

"What is this, Danny." Freddy sighed forlornly, pointing between the two of them. "I can't do dating yet- We just like formally met and I'm- kind of scared honestly. I'm still kind of under the impression that this is like all some kind of a prank or something-"

Danny rocked back and forward on his heels. "I'll tell the camera crew you're not ready for the proposal yet." He said in a soothing voice. It made Freddy smile and shake his head.  
"You know what? How about we swap numbers so it won't be another month before we speak again, and we're gonna be friends for now."

"Alright." Freddy grinned. "I can do that."

Danny threw his cup into a trashcan and walked back to Freddy with his phone out. "I'm just warning you though, I'm gonna win you over within a week with my sick ass memes."

* * *

**October 31st  
  
Freddy.**

Frederick pushed past a zombie and a fairy making out, muttering "Excuse me, Doctor coming through." The zombie had ripped jeans and a scar drawn with eye pencil on his cheek and the only reason Freddy really interpreted him as a zombie was the obnoxious groaning sounds he was making into the fairy's mouth. And yet he felt sort of embarrassed for the costume he was wearing.

Freddy hadn't really expected the party to be that much fun, but after having Ethan and Danny hyping it up constantly he had also sort of admitted to himself that he was kind of interested, and it couldn't be that bad really. God, Freddy wished he was better at mingling, at having fun and enjoying himself without someone to hold his fucking hand. It had seemed like such a good party to ease in to; everyone was being foolish- there was no (visible) alcohol, as it was mostly freshmen and even a teacher or two, and the possibility to retreat back into his dorm room any time he wanted, as it was literally just a floor up.

But no, clearly Freddy should've just skipped out. Someone had swooped Ethan away from him 10 minutes into the whole ordeal, and though Ethan had promised to be back quick, he wasn't going to be. Freddy had waited for a whole ass 15 minutes before he gave up, and came out of his little corner of the room.

Now here he was, alone, sort of looking for the exit or for someone he recognized. Ildan from introductory statistics had borrowed him a pencil once, perhaps Freddy could talk to him, he seemed nice. Or the girl with the knitted scarf that sat at the opposite of his table in the library every Wednesday evening. They had never really talked, because you weren't supposed to talk in a library, and he had no idea what her name was... But she had a really sweet smile. He wasn't sure if he could recognize either of the two if they would be wearing a costume, though. And if he was being honest, he wasn't sure if he felt like talking to them anyway.

Mostly he was looking for a loud stocky batter with Asian features. He wasn't sure what he was wearing either, Danny had texted him that he'd better come down and find out. And now Freddy kind of wanted to. But he couldn't fucking find him.

Honestly! How hard could it be to find him? Danny was about as unnoticeable as an air horn. But there were a lot of human air horns at this party, it seemed. Freddy moved himself against a wall and pulled his phone from his lab coat for the umpteenth time. As he unlocked it, nothing had changed. It was still opened on his private chat with Danny, and the last message was still the same as well.

**_ At 19:22 Daniël Dong said:  
_ ** _c you tonight then!!! better be wearing something sexy ;P_

It had made Freddy smile the first twenty times but it was now almost three hours later. Two hours into the party. Danny would probably have found him if he had been looking as hard as Freddy had. He was probably having a fun time with his friends. What would he do when he saw Freddy? He'd say hi probably, maybe introduce him to the others. What was he going to do then? Stand there next to Danny saying nothing for maybe another hour like an awkward beanpole in a lab coat that was a little too small for him? 

Freddy yelped as a gigantic guy dressed as a... pirate? bumped into him, spilling some of the contents of the cup in his hand on Frederick's turtleneck. There was a smaller guy on his back like some sort of spider monkey. "Adam!" The smaller guy said, scandalized. He then laughed and pulled at the pirate's shoulders.

"Sorry-" The pirate told him. He pulled the bandanna from his head and handed it to Freddy. Like it would solve the problem. Frederick chocked out a high pitched affirmative, feeling his stomach contract and his eyes well up. 

"Full speed captain!" The small guy commanded, and the large pirate was more than welcome to listen, fleeing the scene.

Frederick's hands were shaking and his heart was in his throat and his breathing was labored and he was having a fucking panic attack against that god damn wall on that god damn party he shouldn't have gone to and now people were probably going to be staring at him making a fool out of himself in that too small of a lab coat and that wet turtleneck and some guy's bandanna clenched in his hands like it was stolen property-

"Freddy?" Danny's voice didn't sound worried at first, it sounded kind of distant and yelling-y. Then suddenly it was close. " _Freddy!_ Are you having an asthma attack?"

Freddy wanted to tell him no, but he was hyperventilating and not eager to explain that his body had spiralled itself into an attack because someone spilled a bit of soda on his shirt.

Freddy sort of offered him the bandanna, and Danny took it, brows furrowed. "Oh that's Adam's." he said offhandedly, looking into the crowd for a sec, making it into a ball and throwing it somewhere. He then turned back to Frederick, who was just looking at him with wide eyes and still breathing heavily. Danny took his hands. "Hold on to my arms okay, Fred? Can you breathe with me?"

Frederick nodded faintly and tried to follow along as Danny took deep exaggerated breaths. Freddy had a death grip on his arms, which were bare, just like the rest of his torso for some reason. He looked into the darkness of Danny's eyes, as serious and worried as if he was performing a life-saving surgery. There was a red plastic helmet on top of his head that nearly fell off with the upwards tilt of his head and his hair was pulled back into the little ponytail he wore whenever he went out for baseball practice. Freddy had become very accustomed it by stalking his Instagram the past few weeks. He felt his breathing slowly evening out, and then let out a deep sigh on his own.

"Yeah that's it." Danny smiled at him, squeezing Freddy's arms back softly as he slowly released his tight grip. "You alright, Doctor Greenwood?"

"What are you supposed to be?" Freddy asked, miserably. Danny took a little step back and spread out his arms to give him the full display. "Tell me what it looks like?"

Danny's chest was bare, which was fair, it was hot as an oven with all the people in the place. But it also wasn't really fair because Danny was pretty fucking jacked, and as Frederick moved his gaze down, he felt his mouth run a little dry. The pants he was wearing were a bright yellow rubber like material, and were held up by red suspenders. The red helmet on top of his smiling face had a small logo on it that said _'fire chief'_

"You're a firefighter."

Danny raised a finger. "A sexy firefighter. Hotter than the fire itself. That's why it's my mortal enemy." Freddy smiled, shaking his head. "It's good to hear that at least one of us is confident in his outfit."

Danny tilted his head to the side and the helmet nearly slid of his head again. "What'cha mean? You look cute as hell!"

Freddy just kept quiet.

"You don't look like you're having a real good time." Danny said sadly, pursing his lips.

"I don't really know anyone." Frederick muttered. "Then Ethan left and I couldn't find him- or you. And I was sort of planning to go back to the dorm."

"Good luck Quentin and Turner found you then." He scratched his neck. "I must've gushed a little too much for them to recognize you like this, but I'm glad they did."

"Quentin and Turner?" Freddy inquired, never having heard the names before.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, they're juniors but they're in the baseball team. Pitch and batter."

Freddy nodded along and watched over Danny's shoulder, where he could now recognize some faces he had seen on the varsity baseball team. Some of them had shown up on some of Danny's selfies he liked to send him. He saw a small-ish pretty girl dressed as either a french mime or a burglar, which he realized must be Mica.

Another girl with a smirky smile that kind of made Freddy uncomfortable, but maybe it was because she wore a really convincing vampire costume. A skinny blond boy with hair as long as Danny's wearing a cowboy hat and shooting at the vampire girl with his toy gun with no sense of self preservation. 

It looked like a fun bunch, and Frederick realized that while he had made basically zero friends, Danny had friends to spare. They were all high school jocks grown up, and Freddy was the nerd. How the hell was he supposed to mix with that kind of friend group?

"Want to meet the baseball team and it's entourage?" Danny asked with a wink as he saw Freddy looking offering his hand. Frederick opened his mouth to decline, but then cringed as suddenly the music blew up. It was a song that seemed familiar to Frederick, but he had no idea what language it was.

_'Takmış koluna elin adamını  
Beni orta yerimden çatlatıyor'_

Danny was laughing really hard, a hand covering his face.

Freddy looked as the small guy from earlier- Turner, jumped up a table, pulling another boy up with him. He was now wearing the pirate coat from the guy he had been piggybacking earlier, and it was way too big on him. "Party people!" He announced. "Your entertainment for tonight give it up for the magnificent magical Tim."

The other boy, dressed as some kind of belly dancer was as much of a born entertainer as Turner, or Danny for that matter. Maybe even more.

"And let me hear you again for my partner for tonight! Ain Turner!"  
Turner and the belly dancer boy moved into a choreography that looked too rehearsed to be improvised.

"They do this every god damn time at our varsity parties but I didn't think they'd have the balls to do it in front of the entirety of Wilbur hall." Danny laughed in his ear.

The crowd welcomed them with loud cheers, and yelled "OY OY" along with the boys at points where Freddy was pretty sure 'Oy oy' weren't the lyrics.

The cheers only got louder once the two of them started pulling new dance partners from the crowd.

Freddy's mouth fell open as one of the people the belly dancer pulled up was Ethan, the hood of his dragon onesie fallen down and exposing that bleached head of his. His Ethan. Ethan the nerd, in the midst of what were objectively hot jocks. Maybe it didn’t matter that much what any of them had been in high school.

Freddy couldn't help but smile, feeling like perhaps this party could still be redeemed. He took Danny's hand, and Danny beamed up at him. "Show me your squad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hardest thing about this whole fic is me trying to keep up American English spelling 
> 
> Ain and Tim are dancing to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKShvCPrRc

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a link to Danny's poster of the Jonas brothers:  
> ( https://jonasbrothers.com/images/modules/cool-audio-mobile.jpg )


End file.
